Utilities

Utilities facilitate everyday tasks, such as keeping the clock up to date, archiving utilities, and more.

Archiving Utilities

BChunk

BChunk is a command-line utility that allows you to convert .cue and .bin files into an .iso file (so that they can be opened and manipulated in Ubuntu).
Warning: If the bin/cue image has audio tracks, they will be lost.

Get BChunk

sudo apt-get install bchunk

To convert .cue and .bin files, navigate to the folder and run this command (replacing filenames with your own):

bchunk inputfilename.bin inputfilename.cue outputfilename.iso

After the file is converted into ISO you can mount it using:

sudo mount -o loop outputfilename.iso /media/output

Navigate to /media/output and you should see all the content there. You can then copy it anywhere.

To unmount:

sudo umount /media/output

HJSplit Files Joiner/Splitter

HJSplit for Linux (Java version).

Make sure you have Java Runtime Environment installed:

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre

Download the HJSplit JAR file:

wget http://www.freebyte.com/download/hjsplit/hjsplit_g.jar

Create the directory for HJSplit:

sudo mkdir /opt/hjsplit

Move the file to an appropriate directory:

sudo mv hjsplit_g.jar /opt/hjsplit/

Run:

cd /opt/hjsplit/ && java -jar hjsplit_g.jar

Note: You could also make a terminal shortcut (menu item) in K Menu Editor.

Rar

Rar archives files into the proprietary .rar format.

sudo apt-get install rar

This application is a 40-day trial.

Unrar

Unrar extracts files archived with the proprietary .rar format. This application is free for noncommercial use. It is installed with the ubuntu-restricted-extras package. If not, install:

sudo apt-get install unrar

7-Zip

The open-source 7-Zip archive format was originally designed for Windows (and DOS) but is also available for Ubuntu. The GNU/Linux version of 7-Zip does not come with a GUI, but Ark can hook into 7-Zip to handle 7z archives. Install:

Network Monitors

There are two types of network monitors: those that monitor your own system's network settings and those that monitor network traffic. The latter includes security tools that can also be used as hackers tools. While we don't espouse the latter, it is worthwhile to know about these tools so you are aware of security risks to your network. A list of available tools is at Top Ubuntu Security Tools.

Netstat

Netstat is the Linux command-line tool to monitor network status and functions. There are many usage parameters. See the manual for help.

netstat

Etherape (Network monitoring)

EtherApe is a graphical utility that allows you to see (in real-time) where connections are being made on your network, or between your network (or computer) and the Internet. If you are experiencing unexpected network activity on your computer or LAN and wish to see where the activity is occurring, this is an easy tool to use. Both "local" user and "root user" installations are created; in general you must use the root user installation to see all your network traffic.